“I would rather play Ding because Selby is going to kill me,” O’Sullivan told ITV.

“They better put some late trains on for the public if I play him. Today was a Selby-like performance, I stuck in there, you cannot play well all the time.”

The 42-year-old’s last-four tie was much more of battle in contrast to his 5-0 quarter-final thrashing off Xiao Guodong, where he finished with a pot success rate of 99% in under 55 minutes, compiling four century breaks.

O’Sullivan was being drawn into long, tactical exchanges against Maguire, unable to find any consistency as his Scottish opponent made breaks of 105 and 53.

But O’Sullivan hit back in style and is now aiming to add to his English Open, Shanghai Masters and UK Championship triumphs this season.

He added: “Before I did not believe I could turn it around but now I do, miracles can happen. When you get in a rhythm and cue well, the game is very easy.

“When behind, you have to try and grab it at that stage and make something happen. I would rather go out attacking.”